editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Kat Chow is a founding member of NPR's Code Switch, an award-winning team that covers the complicated stories of race, ethnicity, and culture. She helps make new episodes for the Code Switch podcast, reports online features for Code Switch, and reports on-air pieces for NPR's shows like Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Her work has led readers and listeners on explorations of the gendered and racialized double standards surrounding double-eyelid surgery, as well as the mysterious origins of a so-called "Oriental" riff – a word she's also written a personal essay about. Much of her role revolves around finding new ways to build communities and tell stories, like @todayin1963 or #xculturelove.During her tenure at NPR, Chow has also worked with NPR's show Invisibilia to develop a new digital strategy; reported for KERA in Dallas, Texas, as NPR's 2015 radio reporting fellow; and served on the selection committee for AIR Media's incubator project, Localore. Every now and then, sheNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Kat ChowMon, 28 Nov 2016 23:48:45 +0000Kat Chowhttp://krcc.org
Kat ChowOn election night, as it became clear that Donald Trump would be the country's next president, Dorcas Lind was feeling unsettled. With her children tucked in bed, Lind watched as the results trickled in and battleground states like Pennsylvania, Florida and North Carolina turned red on the TV map. She thought about work.Maybe, she thought, this would be good for business. Or, maybe, it was time for a career change.Lind is a diversity consultant in the health care industry. It's her job to go into companies and help them create inclusive environments for their employees.For consultants like Lind, the election's polarizing nature, which especially divided the nation on issues of race, is two-fold. While it means some of their business will almost certainly boom, a new set of challenges emerges for the professional peacemakers. Now, they say, they have to work harder to tamp down heightened feelings of us versus them; they have to hear the concerns of people usually thought of asAfter Election, Diversity Trainers Face A New Version Of 'Us Versus Them'http://krcc.org/post/after-election-diversity-trainers-face-new-version-us-versus-them
57315 as http://krcc.orgMon, 28 Nov 2016 15:46:00 +0000After Election, Diversity Trainers Face A New Version Of 'Us Versus Them'Kat ChowA surrogate of President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday invoked Japanese internment camps as precedent for creating a registry for Muslim immigrants. This comes less than a week after the Kansas secretary of state told Reuters that Trump's team might reprise a post-Sept. 11 national registry of immigrants from countries regarded as havens for "extremist activity."Such conversations in the president-elect's circles have raised new concerns about civil rights among advocates for American Muslims.Former Navy SEAL and Trump surrogate Carl Higbie told Fox News' Megyn Kelly that the registry would be legal and that "we need to protect America first."Here is how that exchange went after Higbie said there was legal precedent for the registry and referred to Japanese internment camps:Kelly: You know better than to suggest that. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl.Higbie: Right. I'm not saying I agree with it, but in this case I absolutely believe that a regionalRenewed Support For Muslim Registry Called 'Abhorrent'http://krcc.org/post/renewed-support-muslim-registry-called-abhorrent
56990 as http://krcc.orgThu, 17 Nov 2016 23:37:00 +0000Renewed Support For Muslim Registry Called 'Abhorrent'Kat ChowOn Tuesday, more than 128 million people voted for our next president. Nearly half were elated with the results: a Donald Trump victory.Though he failed to win the popular vote, Trump won 29 states (as of this writing; still waiting on Arizona and New Hampshire) and prevailed in key battleground states, including Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Exit polls show that a majority of white people — spanning all age ranges — voted for Trump. Non-college-educated white people especially loved him. And though it's true that his support was overwhelmingly white — the majority of people of color voted for Clinton, according to CNN's survey — there's a striking caveat: Twenty-nine percent of Asians and Latinos and 8 percent of black people voted for Trump.But 69 million people chose someone else. Many were turned off by the business mogul, who once described Mexican immigrants as rapists, called for the deportation of Syrian refugees, advocated banning all Muslim immigrants,The Outlook On Race After Trump Victory: Fear, Resignation And Deja Vuhttp://krcc.org/post/outlook-race-after-trump-victory-fear-resignation-and-d-j-vu
56690 as http://krcc.orgWed, 09 Nov 2016 22:36:00 +0000The Outlook On Race After Trump Victory: Fear, Resignation And Deja VuKat ChowA girl fights a Pokemon character in a parking lot and gets sucked into a Poke Ball. A mustachioed man, pretending to be El Chapo, runs through a cave, then a fast food restaurant and then a mall in search of Donald Trump, whom viewers see video of making denigrating comments about Mexicans. A young man satirizes the spare dishes presented in fancy restaurants.These are the types of wacky, of-the-moment videos that will be missed now that Twitter is winding down its video app, Vine. (To be clear, Vine says it won't delete its videos. As least, for now. They will be preserved for your perusal, and users will be able to download their own videos.)And though people all across the Internet are eulogizing Vine for its "mirthful" videos and for the gaping six-second hole it'll leave in our collective hearts, this is also a particular loss for young people of color. Vine is home to a distinctly younger — and browner and blacker — user base. According to a Pew Research Center survey last year,A Moment Of Silence For The Black And Brown Talent That Grew On Vinehttp://krcc.org/post/moment-silence-black-and-brown-talent-grew-vine
56201 as http://krcc.orgFri, 28 Oct 2016 16:20:00 +0000A Moment Of Silence For The Black And Brown Talent That Grew On VineKat ChowFormer Florida Gov. Jeb Bush once described Asian-Americans as the "canary in the coal mine" of the Republican Party, saying that if Republicans didn't make more of an effort to court the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, the party would pay a price at the polls.Now a new report from the National Asian American Survey finds not only that Asian-Americans continue a steady drift away from the GOP, but that the party may be losing one of its most reliable ethnic groups.Among registered Asian-American voters, the survey found Democrat Hillary Clinton had a 4-to-1 lead over Republican Donald Trump.Alton Wang, a communications associate with the nonpartisan group APIAVote, said many Asian-Americans are increasingly turned off by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. More than 1 in 5 respondents were undecided. This is especially key because swing states, including Nevada, Virginia and North Carolina, have sizable Asian-American populations with undecided voters.One groupAsian-Americans Continue To Drift Away From The GOP, But It's A Complicated Storyhttp://krcc.org/post/asian-americans-continue-drift-away-gop-its-complicated-story
55583 as http://krcc.orgWed, 12 Oct 2016 11:25:00 +0000Asian-Americans Continue To Drift Away From The GOP, But It's A Complicated StoryKat ChowIt was the first 2016 presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and NBC's Lester Holt was moderating. Holt's topic was how to "heal the divide" between the races, but the conversation had meandered from stop-and-frisk to no-fly lists to the Department of Justice's 1973 racial discrimination suit against Trump.When Clinton mentioned the discrimination lawsuit, Holt prompted Trump to respond.After veering further off topic, Trump did something you might call racial credentialing."In Palm Beach, Florida ... a brilliant community, a wealthy community, probably the wealthiest community there is in the world, I opened a club," Trump said. "And really got great credit for it. No discrimination against African-Americans, against Muslims, against anybody."Trump's invocation of his Palm Beach club was his attempt to "inoculate himself from being called a racist," said Melanye Price, a political science professor at Rutgers University.We see this signaling — "Trust me, I'm okIn This Campaign, Clinton, Trump Flash Their Racial Credentialshttp://krcc.org/post/campaign-clinton-trump-flash-their-racial-credentials
55288 as http://krcc.orgMon, 03 Oct 2016 19:50:00 +0000In This Campaign, Clinton, Trump Flash Their Racial CredentialsKat ChowIt's hard to figure out what to say after the horrific violence of recent days, but Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby are our guides as they walk us through this week's extra episode.The week began with the deaths — captured on videos that went viral — of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile in Falcon Ridge, Minn., at the hands of police officers. And it raged on when — at a previously peaceful Dallas protest organized in response to those two deaths — a gunman opened fire on police officers patrolling the march, killing five officers.We heard the conflicting emotions sparked by these events from many of our followers, and we spoke to Joe Jones, a Dallas resident trying to make sense of the tragedy that unfolded less than a mile from his apartment."I think we're at the start of a conversation that's bigger than any individual moment and I think back to things like Charleston, and moments where our country has suffered a tragedy an we're able to feel that pain,"The Code Switch Podcast, Episode 8: No Wordshttp://krcc.org/post/code-switch-podcast-episode-8-no-words
51872 as http://krcc.orgSat, 09 Jul 2016 16:08:00 +0000The Code Switch Podcast, Episode 8: No WordsKat ChowFor this week's episode, I sat down with my Code Switch teammate Gene Demby to dig into one of our favorite topics: rep sweats. It's the feeling of anxiety that can come with watching TV shows or movies starring people who look like you, especially when People Who Look Like You tend not to get a lot of screen time.When it comes to strong feelings and anxieties about representation on TV — especially when it comes to Asian-Americans — Jeff Yang has plenty of experience. He's a cultural critic who regularly contributes to CNN, as well as The Wall Street Journal, Quartz and, occasionally, Code Switch.In 1994, Jeff was a TV critic for Village Voice. His editor told him to review the new ABC sitcom All-American Girl, starring the comedian Margaret Cho, who played a Korean-American teenage girl constantly butting heads with her immigrant family.Jeff hesitated. All-American Girl was the first network sitcom featuring an Asian-American family ever, and a lot was riding on it. Jeff knew howOn The Podcast: Rep Sweats, Or, 'I Don't Know If I Like This, But I Need It To Win'http://krcc.org/post/podcast-rep-sweats-or-i-dont-know-if-i-i-need-it-win
51163 as http://krcc.orgWed, 22 Jun 2016 12:06:00 +0000On The Podcast: Rep Sweats, Or, 'I Don't Know If I Like This, But I Need It To Win'Kat ChowMy dad, who came to the U.S. in 1969 from Hong Kong, who speaks English-lilted-with-Taishanese, who has lived in Connecticut for two-thirds of his life — three times the length of his time in Asia — still uses the word "Oriental."It's always a casual reference. "This place used to be a Oriental restaurant," he'll say, as we drive by a boarded-up storefront that once was a Chinese take-out joint.He doesn't use it in a derogatory way. It's just his go-to term for anything Asian, whether that's food, a business, a person, an idea. But I keep trying to get him to stop."We use Asian, or Asian-American, now," I'll tell him. "That term's been outdated for a long time." He just shrugs. I can't see his expression under his old baseball hat and clip-on sunglasses — the type that flip up — but I know he's raising an eyebrow, throwing a side-eye my way."I'm Oriental," he'll say.In the '80s, my dad owned one of those so-called Oriental restaurants himself, in a tiny suburb of Hartford, Conn. ItMy 'Oriental' Father: On The Words We Use To Describe Ourselveshttp://krcc.org/post/my-oriental-father-words-we-use-describe-ourselves
50103 as http://krcc.orgWed, 25 May 2016 10:00:00 +0000My 'Oriental' Father: On The Words We Use To Describe OurselvesKat ChowSo you walk into the new Korean joint around the corner and discover that (gasp) the head chef is a white guy from Des Moines. What's your gut reaction? Do you want to walk out? Why?The question of who gets to cook other people's food can be squishy — just like the question of who gets to tell other people's stories. (See: the whole controversy over the casting of the new Nina Simone biopic.)For some nonwhite Americans, the idea of eating "ethnic cuisine" (and there's a whole other debate about that term) not cooked by someone of that ethnicity can feel like a form of cultural theft. Where does inspiration end? When is riffing off someone's cuisine an homage, and when does it feel like a form of co-opting? And then there's the question of money: If you're financially benefiting from selling the cuisine of others, is that always wrong?Over at the Sporkful from WNYC, Dan Pashman and his producer Anne Saini are exploring these questions in a series of thoughtful episodes.The first oneWhen Chefs Become Famous Cooking Other Cultures' Foodhttp://krcc.org/post/when-chefs-become-famous-cooking-other-cultures-food
47432 as http://krcc.orgTue, 22 Mar 2016 10:30:00 +0000When Chefs Become Famous Cooking Other Cultures' FoodKat ChowJeremy Arambulo, a Filipino-American comic artist who lives in Los Angeles, says he basically came out of the womb knowing the legend of Bruce Lee, the kung fu king. "He's like our Elvis," says Arambulo. "If we didn't have him, geez, who would we have? Charlie Chan? I don't know. Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's?"Growing up on Long Island in the '80s, Arambulo felt culturally isolated on multiple fronts: There weren't many other Filipino — let alone Asian-American — families near where he lived in Queens, and the pop culture landscape wasn't exactly littered with Asian faces.So that's why Bruce Lee stuck out to Arambulo. Lee's presence was always there, usually shiny and shirtless (my superperceptive observation, of course) in work from the '70s, whether he was playing Tang, the triumphant hero in Way of the Dragon, or an antiques dealer in the TV show Longstreet. In each scene, Lee dispensed his flashy punches and kicks for the camera, distant versions of jeet kune do, theThe Epic Web Comic That Reimagines The Legend Of Bruce Lee http://krcc.org/post/epic-web-comic-reimagines-legend-bruce-lee
44557 as http://krcc.orgWed, 13 Jan 2016 15:37:00 +0000The Epic Web Comic That Reimagines The Legend Of Bruce Lee Kat ChowIn Fresh Off The Boat's first episode, Eddie Huang walks into the cafeteria of his new middle school for the first time, toting a brown paper bag. As he looks for a seat, we're reminded that on top of the usual new school jitters, Eddie's the lone Asian-American kid in a sea of white faces, each with their prepackaged Lunchables and prepackaged friend groups.If you're the kid of an immigrant, or an immigrant yourself, you know where this is going. One student calls over to Eddie — "Yo, Chinese kid! What's your name again? Something Chinese?" — and invites him to sit at the table. Eddie plops down and pulls out his lunch — a container of noodles. His schoolmates scrunch their noses and recoil. "Get it out of here!" one squeals. "Ying Ming's eating worms."It's all straight out of the Immigrant Kid Handbook — the other kids finding your lunches radioactive, your name unpronounceable, your parents' rules bizarre, your house otherworldly. For many of us who grew up living these scenes, it'sTV's Challenge For 2016: Taking Immigrant Stories To The Next Levelhttp://krcc.org/post/tvs-challenge-2016-taking-immigrant-stories-next-level
43492 as http://krcc.orgMon, 14 Dec 2015 12:04:00 +0000TV's Challenge For 2016: Taking Immigrant Stories To The Next LevelKat ChowRecently, we've been talking a lot about onscreen diversity and how much browner TV has gotten in the past few years with shows like Empire, Master of None and Dr. Ken and showrunners like Shonda Rhimes and Nahnatchka Khan injecting more people of color into the system.The New Yorker's Emily Nussbaum writes that while this spate of shows and talent is "thrilling," it's "also a phenomenon that could easily recede, as it has many times before after periods of progress." She points to previous pushes — in the '50s, when television first gained popularity, the '70s, when Roots and Norman Lear were popular, and again in the Fresh Prince '90s — that signaled some sort of tipping point had been reached, only to slump. Earlier this year, Code Switch made a timeline of sitcoms featuring families of color that illustrates the up-and-down waves of diversity, and it's fascinating to consider the current season, widely hailed as a breakout year for POC actors, against that history of gains ofThe Forgotten Actor Who Battled Hollywood's Whiteness In The 1950shttp://krcc.org/post/forgotten-actor-who-battled-hollywoods-whiteness-1950s
42958 as http://krcc.orgTue, 01 Dec 2015 16:47:00 +0000The Forgotten Actor Who Battled Hollywood's Whiteness In The 1950sKat ChowAround this time in 2014, ABC had just canceled the sitcom Selfie, starring everybody's ideal boyfriend John Cho and Karen Gillan. Cho was the first Asian-American male to play the lead in a rom-sitcom — he called his role "revolutionary" — and fans lamented that the show was just finding its legs when it got cut.In the world of people who care about how, when and whether Asian-Americans show up on our TV screens, it was a nervous time. Fresh Off The Boat was on the horizon, and many gloomily predicted it would suffer the fate of Selfie — low ratings and early demise — or that it would be packed full of stereotypes. The stakes were high: It had been two decades since an Asian-American family was featured in a sitcom, and the number of Asian-American leads on TV at the time was next to nothing. People wanted to believe Fresh Off The Boat would remedy the lack of Asian-Americans on TV, but worried the show would be more poison than antidote."Believe me, if I myself weren't in it, I'dNo Longer 'The Only One'? This Year, Things Changed For Asian-Americans On TVhttp://krcc.org/post/no-longer-only-one-year-things-changed-asian-americans-tv
42233 as http://krcc.orgFri, 13 Nov 2015 17:26:00 +0000No Longer 'The Only One'? This Year, Things Changed For Asian-Americans On TVKat ChowThe word "diversity" gets thrown around a lot in these parts, and recently, it has come under a lot of scrutiny; it's easy to invoke, but what does it actually mean? Over at The New York Times Magazine, Anna Holmes recently pondered how the word gets used in corporate culture, and Aisha Harris at Slate looked at how it comes up in the entertainment industry. And last week, my Code Switch pal Gene Demby tried to assign some action items to the term.We're seeing this conversation erupt publicly at college campuses this month, with a couple of notable situations that raise more questions about "diversity," what it means in practice, and the "right" to feel comfortable wherever you are.This week, University of Missouri's president and chancellor stepped down after protests over campus racism. "It is my belief we stopped listening to each other," president Tim Wolfe said when he announced his resignation. "We have to respect each other enough to stop yelling at each other and startOur Favorite Word — 'Diversity' — Is Under The Microscope At Mizzou And Yalehttp://krcc.org/post/our-favorite-word-diversity-under-microscope-mizzou-and-yale
42097 as http://krcc.orgTue, 10 Nov 2015 16:27:00 +0000Our Favorite Word — 'Diversity' — Is Under The Microscope At Mizzou And YaleKat ChowGrace Lee Boggs, who has spent much of her life advocating for civil rights and labor rights, became such a noted figure in Detroit's Black Power movement that people assumed she must be partially black. In some of her FBI files, Boggs, who is Chinese-American, was described as "probably Afro Chinese."(We'll let that sit with you for a moment.)And that's not the only assumption she's defied. For almost a century — she turned 100 Saturday — she's challenged how people think about their own activism.Many people — in and out of Detroit — have been honoring her life this year. Her own organization, the Boggs Center, hosted events and lectures all this week to celebrate her life; the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center shared a hundred of Boggs' best quotes, one for each of her years; and the James and Grace Lee Boggs School, a charter school she helped start a few years ago, threw her a birthday party.The Start Of Her RevolutionBorn in Providence, R.I., to Chinese immigrants in 1915,Grace Lee Boggs, Activist And American Revolutionary, Turns 100http://krcc.org/post/grace-lee-boggs-activist-and-american-revolutionary-turns-100
36470 as http://krcc.orgSat, 27 Jun 2015 11:03:00 +0000Grace Lee Boggs, Activist And American Revolutionary, Turns 100Kat ChowThere's a long history to the Emanuel African Methodist Espiscopal Church in Charleston, S.C., — affectionately known as "Mother Emanuel" — where nine churchgoers were allegedly shot and killed by 21-year-old Dylann Roof on Wednesday night in what authorities are calling a hate crime. In fact, this church has become a revered symbol of black resistance to slavery and racism.It was founded in 1816 by a black pastor named Morris Brown, and it's the oldest black church still standing south of Baltimore. Booker T. Washington spoke there in 1909, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech of his own in 1962. In 1969, Coretta Scott King led a march from the church's front steps, advocating for higher pay for hospital workers.But decades before Washington and King graced its halls, Mother Emanuel was also the spiritual refuge of Denmark Vesey, a former slave turned carpenter who bought his own freedom in 1799, after he won $1,500 from the Charleston lottery. He was described by many as a martyr,Denmark Vesey And The History Of Charleston's 'Mother Emanuel' Churchhttp://krcc.org/post/denmark-vesey-and-history-charlestons-mother-emanuel-church
36091 as http://krcc.orgThu, 18 Jun 2015 18:12:00 +0000Denmark Vesey And The History Of Charleston's 'Mother Emanuel' ChurchKat ChowToday on Code Switch, writer and critic Roxane Gay, who's a favorite of ours, writes about the problem of all-white recommended readings lists.It also reminded us of an essay from last month by Saeed Jones, literary editor at BuzzFeed. Jones, whose first book of poetry, Prelude To Bruise, came out last year, wrote about being young and black and writerly while navigating literati circles."I feel like I'm supposed to feel desperately grateful because there is, in fact, a very long line of other young black writers waiting outside the velvet rope waiting to be let in, one person at a time."And to Jones, that one-person-at-a-time, velvet-roped line feels dangerous and completely anxiety-inducing (emphasis mine):"The same evening as that party in Miami, a poet who is also black and gay told me that he'd been so nervous about our books coming out within a month of each other. I couldn't pretend not to understand his anxiety. When literary gatekeepers and publishers continue to overlook theBuzzFeed's Saeed Jones Wrote A Beautiful Thing On Being Black In The Book Worldhttp://krcc.org/post/buzzfeeds-saeed-jones-wrote-beautiful-thing-being-black-book-world
35215 as http://krcc.orgThu, 28 May 2015 14:19:00 +0000BuzzFeed's Saeed Jones Wrote A Beautiful Thing On Being Black In The Book WorldKat ChowEditor's note: In 2013, we wrote about a band named The Slants and the legal battle over its name. As the saga continues, we check back in on what it means to the band's members — and what it could mean for trademark law.When Simon Tam dropped out of college in California and moved to Portland, Ore., to become a rock star, the last tangle he imagined falling into was a multiyear battle with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office over his band's name.Tam founded The Slants. He plays bass and describes the group's sound as "Chinatown Dance Rock," very '80s and very nostalgic. But it's not the sound that's landed the band in headlines — it's the eyebrow-raising name.Tam tells me that with it, he's making a point about Asian stereotypes. In his day job, he's a marketing director for a nonprofit. But in making this point, he's spent six years as an unlikely advocate of free speech and Asian-American issues. In the fight to register his band's name, he has enlisted linguists and researchers,The Slants Frontman Fights Government To Register His Band's Namehttp://krcc.org/post/whats-name-band-founder-fights-government-retain-slants
34403 as http://krcc.orgFri, 08 May 2015 17:04:00 +0000The Slants Frontman Fights Government To Register His Band's NameKat Chowhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5EIjwn1g6k Baltimore's lead prosecutor, Marilyn J. Mosby, announced on Friday that the death of Freddie Gray was a homicide. Mosby, who took office in January, is charging six city police officers with a range of offenses — including second-degree murder and manslaughter.NPR's Bill Chappell wrote that Mosby's investigation found that Gray's arrest was "in itself illegal" and that the prosecutor had told the Gray family that "no one is above the law."Mosby also called on the city's demonstrators, acknowledging their cries for action. "Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man," she said.People immediately took to Twitter to respond to Mosby:Slate's Jamelle Bouie writes that Baltimore's black officials are more plugged in to the outrage of many of their constituents — and the potential consequences of inaction."The choice to charge the officers was a legal one. That said, it's hard to dismiss the optics ofReaction To Baltimore Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby's Remarkshttp://krcc.org/post/reaction-baltimore-prosecutor-marilyn-mosbys-remarks
34115 as http://krcc.orgFri, 01 May 2015 18:45:00 +0000Reaction To Baltimore Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby's Remarks